Long Beach....Washington that is...

Last weekend I took Amtrak up to Kelso WA. and a friend of mine picked me up and we went camping. It was so amazing! The weather was great! Warm, sunny, clear skies. Just stunning.

On the Train

In the camper at the park

After a shower, sun drying

Saw this swing set and knew I was going to have to swing on it! 

YAY! 

This was the park we camped at

There were a few of these baby birds around our site just hanging out with us it was awesome.

Cover bridge that you can drive though.  The River view

Approaching the bridge

The inside

I just thought the light made for a great picture with the shadows

Under the bridge

Puts thing in perspective, doesn't it?

We went to this awesome Irish Pub!  It was GREAT!

Homemade Apple pie from Duffys! 

Sitting outside of the bar drinking my beer, what a relaxing day

Made it to Long Beach

So of course I had to get a Strawberry Margarita!  Yum!

 Saw these huge chop sticks...

I was sushi!  hahahahaha

Then there was this frying pan, and well I was an egg....

time to flip!! 

Then I saw Thunder!

 and I had to ride him!!  It was GREAT!

 Welcome to Long Beach

 Beautiful day...

 A little shout out to my parents, I love you guys!

 Yeah my feet are white, so what!  That water was COLD!  But I played anyway

 You can actually drive on this beach but this guy I guess thought it would be fun to drive his Uhaul on the beach, needless to say he got stuck and luckily for him a few other SUV's ventured on the beach and pulled him out.  CRAZY!

 Back at camp, laying in the grass, the clouds and the sun were so beautiful.  I had to take some pictures.  It was the "golden hour"

 ME!

 Hello!

This is the beach where I was camping.  I woke up at 7 AM, why
I don't know, and walked the beach to take pictures and I thought I would share some of the awesome things I saw.

 Had to write my name in the sand haha!

Train station in Kelso WA.  heading back to Portland OR.  I had a great weekend just relaxing, taking pictures, site seeing, and of course drinking.  I did a lot of eating too but I honestly forgot to take pictures of the food before I inhaled in!  This was a much needed mini vaca. 

Sunny in Portland...

Saturday was so beautiful, even when I got off work very early in the morning.  I had to walk around town and take pictures.  The temperature was GREAT.   In the morning in was high 60's and later got up to 80.  It was refreshing and much needed for morale.  this post is mostly going to be pictures, I walked all over town yesterday.  One of the thing I wanted to do in Portland is walk across all the bridges (that you can) in the city.  It was a perfect day to start this. 

Right after work, getting ready to start my exploring

the walkway to Lovejoy Bakers

Random sculptures

 The area we call the Pearl District use to be a wetland.  Tanner Spring Park was created to honor what once was wetlands.  

  Then I ventured across the Broadway Bridge, which is a bascule bridge.  It was the first bascule bridge built in Portland and the longest in the world at the time of its completion. It is the longest Rall-type bascule bridge still in existence.  It opened in April of 1913 it is 1,742 (531 m) in length, 70 ft wide, and longest span is 304 ft.

Once I got the other side I decided to walk across the Steel Bridge.  The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic (on the Pacific Highway West No. 1W and light rail (MAX), making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world. It is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical-lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge.  I plan to go across the Hawthrone bridge soon.  The Steel Bridge opened in 1912 (replaced 1888 bridge), longest span 211 ft, and 71 ft wide.

upper deck

The SIGN!

It was a really awesome day yesterday and I had the best time just walking and enjoying the city for all its beauty. 

Got to thinking....

Friday night while I was at work, I got to thinking that I need to do some "research" on all the bakeries here in Portland.  This city alone has over 275 "bakeries".  Seeing how I want to open a bakery of my own (clearly not in Portland, haha), I figured I should start checking them out.  Seeing what they offer, pricing, setup, staff, how business is different times of the day, the hours they are open and of course taste something they make.  My goal now is to go see a new bakery at least once a week. 
     When I got off work, I googled bakeries and just picked one and routed myself there.   I went to Lovejoy Bakers in the Pearl District.  Let me just say the location is AMAZING!  They are on the corner of Lovejoy and NW 10th Ave. 

The building is incredible, it is literally the corner so they 3 doors, one on each side and of course one in the "middle".  They had all the doors open, outside seating as well as inside.  Cool bar like tables, round little tables, very comfy chairs and the coolest part is that you can see them baking.  Their huge ovens were right there, in front of you when got the counter to order.  The ceilings were high and open, you could see the pipes (which I think is kind of  cool). The aromas that were coming out of there, wow.  It defiantly drew a crowd.  There are a few other bakeries near there that were open, but none of the other ones had a line.  I was there at 7:30 AM Saturday.  They have pretty good hours, 6AM-8PM daily. 

 I checked out their menu and they did serve coffee so I got an iced white mocha and a Orange, cinnamon, pecan buttermilk scone for $6.05. 

The mocha was, ok.  I am still on the search for frappes, but as far as the iced ones go, this one was better than some of the others that I have had.  So a definite note for my bakery, if I am serving coffee, have a blender!  Now on to this scone, I actually enjoyed it.  It was very moist and the flavors just played with each other like a well tuned guitar.  The texture was delectable.  It didn't get really crummy when you took a bite.  It was nice and clean.  I would recommend this bakery to guest that check into the hotel.